“I wonder if we’ll look different to Mom and Dad when we get home,” said Ruby. “Both of your hair is longer. Do you think they’ll suspect anything?”
“That we’ve been time-traveling for weeks while no time has passed for them?” said Corey. “No. Mom and Dad couldn’t even imagine such a thing. They’re too boring and practical.”
“Well we really shouldn’t stay too much longer,” said Ruby.
“It’s fine for now,” said Corey. “We can afford to stay a bit longer.”
“Maybe another week or two,” said Ruby. “But not longer. Mom and Dad will have to imagine something odd happened if you return home with a beard.”
Corey rubbed at his jaw and grinned. “That would be awesome.”
Matt kept skimming the pages, trying to ignore his headache. He didn’t want to talk about home or their parents. He didn’t want to think about his time sickness or taking breaks. He needed to focus on their mission, on the Mona Lisa key.
It was the Vermillion, however, that finally put a stop to their travels. The captain said he wanted to travel to twelfth-century Constantinople, during the Roman Empire. Matt felt dizzy already. There was no way he could travel that far. He’d fall apart. He was ready to have a meltdown. But when the captain went to use the compass, the Vermillion also seemed to have a meltdown. She began to transform, and then she suddenly shuddered to a stop. The ship seemed to groan in protest and popped back into her original form. The captain tried again. Again the ship began to transform, but stopped even sooner this time, and when the ship popped back into place it rocked violently from side to side. Matt braced himself as the captain turned the dials again, but the Vermillion flatly refused this time, and as though she were sending a final message, a beam in the ceiling came crashing down through the floor, narrowly missing the captain.
“Crikey!” said Brocco. “I think she as good as spit in your eye, Captain.”
“Is it broken?” Matt asked. “Are we stuck?”
Jia shook her head. “The Vermillion is exhausted,” she said. “She’s demanding a break.”
The captain didn’t say anything. He simply kicked the fallen beam, then went into his cabin and slammed the door. The lock clicked. Matt slumped against the side of the ship. He patted the floors, grateful for the Vermillion’s sudden stubbornness.
While Matt was relieved to have a break from traveling, he also couldn’t take his mind off the key. Why couldn’t his future self give him some more clues? Why couldn’t he be clear in the first place and just say where the thing was that the key unlocked? Or just tell them what they needed to know to fix the compass? Why lead them through all the trouble to retrieve a key that didn’t appear to unlock anything?
Matt discussed this with Corey and Ruby alone in their room, though they didn’t seem nearly as concerned. “Maybe you couldn’t send more messages,” said Ruby. “What if it caused a glitch somehow? Your future self must know you can figure it out with what you’ve got.”
“I’m beginning to think maybe I overestimated myself,” said Matt.
The captain remained scarce for the next few days. He didn’t emerge for meals. Not even for supper. Jia brought trays of food to him, but the crew seemed a little unsure what to do without his traditional haiku. It seemed like it would be sacrilegious for anyone else to offer it, so after a long silence they finally just started eating.
Matt kept himself busy by helping Jia with repairs on the ship. The fallen beam was not the only thing that needed fixing. After so many transformations there was quite a bit of work to be done—holes to patch up, tears in the sails that needed stitching, jammed pulleys and levers, bits of metal stuck here and there. They went through a lot of bubble gum and peanut butter, and Matt thought it was little wonder that the Vermillion had refused to travel anymore.
Corey was back to target practice with Brocco. Matt noticed that he was using some of his schoolbooks for targets this time. He seemed to take particular delight in shooting holes in his math book, then placed one of his homework assignments in an old vase and dropped a small explosive inside. He chucked it overboard right before it popped and shattered.
Ruby tried to get the captain out of his room to practice swords with her, but he didn’t answer any of her knocks. She tried to practice on her own, but it wasn’t nearly as satisfying. Finally she gave up and started the books Wiley had given her on Queen Elizabeth. She had asked the captain again if they could go there, now that they’d been traveling in a wider range, but the captain had so far put off her request.
It was Ruby who found it. They were all above deck, each at their respective tasks, when Ruby suddenly gasped.
“What?” said Matt. “What’s wrong?”
Ruby was pale. She was staring at her book as though something had just jumped out of the pages and grabbed her. “I found it,” she said.
“Found what?”
“Video et taceo. I found it!”
Matt ran over to Ruby. She pointed to the passage.
The motto of Queen Elizabeth I. Video et taceo, Latin for “I see and keep silent.” This could have several meanings. One, that she often listened more than she spoke, something that actually worked to her advantage as a female monarch. When she did speak, people tended to listen well, not just because she was queen, but because they knew she chose her words wisely.
Queen Elizabeth was also known to have a wide network of spies who worked silently, but effectively, to carry out missions as well as protect her secrets, of which it is rumored that she had many. We will never unlock them all.
Unlock . . . “That’s it,” said Matt. “Queen Elizabeth has what the Mona Lisa key opens!”
“We need to show this to the captain right away,” said Ruby. She jumped up and ran down the steps with the book in her arms. Corey and Matt followed closely behind. She went directly to the captain’s office and pounded on the door. No one answered. She pounded again and kept pounding until finally it unlocked.
The captain opened the door, and Ruby let out a small gasp. Matt stepped back a little. The captain looked awful. His eyes were sunken with dark circles beneath them, his clothes rumpled, and his hair was in all directions, like he’d been attempting to pull it out. Even Santiago, perched on his shoulder, looked a little sickly. His whiskers drooped, and Matt could see bald patches where he’d lost fur.
“Captain, we know where we need to go,” Matt said. “We found video et taceo!”
“I found it,” said Ruby, a little huffily.
“Yes, yes, Ruby found it. Look!” He snatched the book out of her hands and held it out to the captain. The captain stared blankly down at the book.
“Queen Elizabeth!” said Ruby. “We need to travel to see her!”
The captain didn’t answer. He kept staring at the book. His face seemed to grow paler than it already was.
“Captain?” said Matt. He finally looked up at Matt.
“We can’t go there,” said the captain.
“Why not? The queen has what we’re looking for!” said Matt. “She must have whatever the Mona Lisa key unlocks!”
The captain shook his head. “She’ll never give it to me.”
“Why not?” said Matt. “You have plenty of treasure, right? I mean, she’d make a trade if the deal was good enough.”
“Especially if we get to her earlier in her reign,” said Ruby knowledgeably. “It’s well known that the royal finances were drained while fighting off Spain. She’d probably welcome a chest of gold.”
“You don’t understand,” said the captain. “She won’t give it to me at any price. She’d rather see my head on a pike.”
“Why?” Ruby asked. “I thought you were friends.”
Captain Vincent shook his head. “She and Captain Bonnaire were great friends at one time. Captain Bonnaire was the one who led the charge on stealing gold from all those Spanish ships, not Sir Francis Drake, whatever the history books say. Captain Bonnaire even called Queen Elizabeth the Pirate Queen.
Oh, Queen Elizabeth loved it, but soon she began to desire an additional title. She wanted to be the Time Pirate Queen.”
“She wants the compass,” said Matt.
“She knows about it?” said Ruby.
“Of course she does!” said Captain Vincent. “And she always resented that Captain Bonnaire left it to me and not her. She’ll stop at nothing to get it. She believes the compass is her royal, God-given right. The minute she spots me she’ll have my neck in a noose.” He rubbed at his throat, as though he could feel the rope tightening around him already.
Matt’s mind raced. There had to be a way.
“What if we go to the queen instead?” said Matt. “Corey and Ruby and I. We can go to the queen and make her believe we have the compass, or that we can get it for her, if she gives us what we want.”
The captain shook his head. “She’s too smart for such tactics. She won’t give you what you want unless she has the compass in her hands. And she wouldn’t believe you have it anyway. The only people she’s seen with the compass are myself and Captain Bonnaire. Captain Bonnaire is the only time pirate she ever trusted, and she’s dead.”
Matt thought some more. “What if,” said Matt, “we said we were the children of Captain Bonnaire?”
The captain opened his mouth, presumably to say why that wouldn’t work, and then paused.
“Will that work?” Ruby asked. “I mean, do we look anything like her?”
The captain gazed at each of them, first Matt, then Corey, then Ruby. “It’s not so unbelievable,” he said. “Granted, Captain Bonnaire was never the mothering type, but it’s not impossible. She was a beautiful, dark-haired woman. Any man would have fallen at her feet to have her. I rather think it made the queen a bit jealous, in fact. That alone might make her believe it.”
“We could say our mother meant to leave us the compass,” Matt continued, “but you stole it from her before she died.”
The captain rubbed at his chin. “She’ll definitely believe that,” he said.
“We’ll tell her our mother also left us the Mona Lisa key, without your knowledge. She told us that Queen Elizabeth would have what the key unlocks, that it would help us get back the compass.”
“And we can tell her we’ll let her use the compass every now and then,” said Corey, “If she gives us whatever the key unlocks. You know, like share it?”
The captain shook his head. “Not good enough. She won’t share with you. She’ll want the compass all to herself.”
“Maybe she wouldn’t share,” said Matt, “but maybe she’ll believe we are naïve enough to think she would. We’re only kids, after all. We’re no match for her, a queen. If she believes we’re the children of Captain Bonnaire and can get the compass, she might believe she has the opportunity to get the compass for herself, if she helps us.”
The captain considered. A smile slowly grew on his pale face. “That’s good, Mateo. You do have a tactical mind. As crazy as it all sounds, it might work if we play our cards just right.”
“So we can go?” Ruby asked hopefully. “We’ll get to meet the queen?”
“It will take some preparation,” said the captain. “It will not be easy, but I do believe this is the only way.”
Ruby let out an uncharacteristic squeal and clapped her hands. “Oh my gosh, I wonder if I could interview her. Can you imagine if I had actual firsthand quotes from Queen Elizabeth in my report?”
“Not to be a downer, sis,” said Corey, “but it’s probably gonna be hard to convince your teacher that you actually spoke to her.”
“It doesn’t matter,” said Ruby. “It will still give me insight I wouldn’t have had before. Oh my goodness, what are we going to wear? Does Brocco have clothes for us? I mean, I’ll need a gown from that era.”
“I’m sure Brocco will be thrilled to outfit you for the mission,” said the captain, “but that is only a small portion of our preparations. There will be many pieces to this mission, each one as vital as the next. You must pay close attention or you may just find your heads in a noose, or on the tip of a sword.”
Matt swallowed. He hadn’t been considering any of the dangers of this mission, only the rewards.
“We can do it,” said Ruby confidently.
“I have no doubt,” said the captain.
17
The Pirate Queen
“Bow at the waist,” said Albert. “No, no, that’s all wrong. Keep your back straight and put your chin down. You’re not supposed to look at the queen. Abase yourself!”
The Hudsons had been practicing their court manners for hours. They had to make sure they were presentable in every way, not only in their clothing, but in speech, address, and manners. Wiley had brought out a stack of books on Elizabethan customs and manners and was spouting off things about titles and rules and certain phrases they should say, words like anon and verily and thee and thou.
“Instead of saying ‘excuse me’ you should say ‘pray pardon me,’” said Wiley, “and you don’t say ‘How are you?’ but ‘How fare thee?’ Ooh, that sounds fancy, don’t it?”
They hadn’t made much progress. Matt’s brain buzzed with all the titles and phrases to remember.
“These tights are killing me,” complained Corey. He pulled off his poofy, feathered hat and scratched his left leg with his right, pulling the stocking down. “Can’t I just go without?”
“No,” said Albert. “And you have to wear the hat, too, or the whole court will think you’re nothing but a pickpocketing urchin.”
“Only you’d be called a ‘cutpurse,’” said Wiley. “That’s the proper word for a thief, it says right here.”
“What should I care what they think?” said Corey. “It’s all stupid anyway.”
“Do as you like,” said Albert. “I don’t care if the queen chops off your head just because you can’t manage to bow and dress properly.”
“I’ll chop off your head,” Corey grumbled, shoving the hat back on.
“Oh, and lookie here,” said Wiley. “Instead of calling someone a drunkard you’d call them a ‘tosspot.’ Ooh, I like that one. Brocco, you tosspot! He-he-ha!”
“I’ll toss your pot,” muttered Brocco.
Ruby had been quite excited to wear her costume, until she had to try it on. It was a full-length gray gown trimmed with pearls. “How do people breathe in these things?” said Ruby, pulling at her stiff bodice.
“High fashion comes with a price, Li’l Blade,” said Brocco.
“Barbaric,” Ruby grumbled. Matt wondered if she was having second thoughts about this trip, if the torture of the clothes was worth seeing one of her historic heroines.
“I’d happily suffer right along with you if I could come too,” said Jia with a sigh.
It had been decided that only the Hudsons would go to the queen and hopefully be convincing as the children of Captain Bonnaire. Captain Vincent would escort them only to the outer gates of the palace and would wait for them in hiding until they returned, hopefully with their treasure in hand.
Just then Captain Vincent appeared. He looked a little more rested than he had before. At least some color had come back to his face and his hair was combed. He was dressed in a black suit with puffy sleeves and a white ruff around the neck, a brimmed hat on his head.
“You look like Shakespeare!” exclaimed Ruby.
The captain smiled, took off his hat, and bowed. Matt tried to watch how he did it so well. “Do you think we could see one of Shakespeare’s plays while we’re there?” Ruby asked.
“Oh no,” Corey muttered.
“Perhaps,” said the captain. “But it all depends on how things go with the queen, and you must put all your focus on her. She is a magnificent woman: intelligent, bold, exceedingly handsome, and extremely proud. She would have made an excellent time pirate. It’s unfortunate she’d sooner have my head than call me Captain.”
“Why does she hate you so much?” Ruby asked.
The captain sighed. “She believes I made an a
ttempt on her life, which is untrue. She’s rather paranoid, not that I blame her. There have been plenty of attempts on her life. In any case, it’s impossible for me to visit the queen at any time, so you three are vital in this mission.”
Ruby nodded resolutely. “We won’t let you down.”
The captain smiled down at Ruby. “You know,” he said. “I can almost believe you to be the children of Captain Bonnaire myself. Especially you, Miss Ruby. You have her passion and strength of spirit.”
Ruby beamed at the compliment. They all knew how much Captain Bonnaire meant to him.
The captain reached inside his sleeve and pulled out the compass. “Let’s hope the Vermillion cooperates this time. Ready, crew? Prepare for a quantum time leap!”
Matt held on to a beam as the ship began to transform. The sides pressed in, and the floors narrowed. The ceiling lowered, then split and rolled around the edges, much as it had when they’d become a rowboat in India, only it didn’t shrink nearly so much. The dining table and chairs folded in on themselves and pressed themselves to the side, while the door to the captain’s cabin split open and the whole of it sank down into the floor and sealed itself off. The air went from warm and balmy to a bitter chill within a few moments. Matt shivered, and they all pulled on the cloaks that Brocco had provided for them.
“Finally!” said Ruby. “The ship didn’t try to kill me during a transformation!” She made to walk and promptly tripped and fell over. Her ankles were entirely knotted up in ropes.
“Spoke too soon!” Corey said, laughing.
Pike ran over to Ruby and immediately started untying the ropes, freeing her within minutes.
They all stood on the deck of a long, narrow river barge with a single large white sail, the Vermillion’s flag waving at the top, floating down a river. Sheets of ice were floating through the steely gray water.
“The River Thames,” said the captain.
They passed little sailboats and fishing boats and a few other barges. Along the frosty banks were little cottages and fields, empty for the winter. As they went farther downstream the fields disappeared and the buildings drew tighter together. Towers and steeples peaked up between small houses and shops all pressed together, their rooftops white with snow and with icicles hanging down. They looked like rows of gingerbread houses.
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